This felt much less like Pixar than I was expecting, and I honestly think that's a good thing. Classic Pixar will always be a golden era of animation, but as Disney's own animation arm has shown, invention and evolution are key to staying relevant, and it feels like that's exactly what Pixar is doing these days. If Soul was a fun step forward, half-step back, and Luca was a slightly unusual aside, Turning Red feels like a much more confident stride into a new direction, and the result is solid. The core characters are surprisingly bold and punchy, but still retain the heart that makes Pixar so beloved, and the story is a fun twist on classic "coming of age" tales from the past. There's more than a little Teen Wolf here, with plenty of puberty jokes and absurdities, but the more female focus is refreshing and done well (at least, it seemed it to me), and I feel like the cultural elements helped it feel more unique, too (again, at least from the perspective of someone not from that culture).
Still, it's the humour that Turning Red really nails. Whether it's the ridiculously perfect 90s boy band homage, or the excellent way Mei's body is animated to really accentuate her personality, or just the goofy one-line asides, the film wraps up a lot of giggles into the run time. Layer on top some solid character development, some classic Pixar moralising around friendship and family, plus a nicely broad core message around balancing being yourself versus what those you love expect, and I had a great time. Is the ending a little MCU? Sure. Are some of the moments a little overly cringey? Yeah, but that's the point. Is it riffing on a lot of previous teen comedies? Definitely, but it does so through a novel lens and with some fun modernisations. It's not going to be a timeless classic, but Turning Red is a fun romp with more soul than was necessary.